Related Articles

Vos flew up the cobbled finishing straight and won by several metres ahead of Ina Teutenberg (HTC-Highroad Women, Emma Johansson (Hitec Products-UCK) and Elizabeth Armitstead (Garmin-Cervelo).

“The finish of the stage suited me and my form is great. My Giro couldn’t have started better and now I hope to keep the race leader’s jersey for as long as possible.”

The 86km stage covered the rolling roads south of Rome and Valentina Scandolara (Gauss Rdz Ormu Unico1) was the first to the top of the climb and so later pulled on the first climber’s jersey of this 22nd edition of the women’s Giro d’Italia.

The race came alive on the finishing circuits in Velletri. Emilia Fahlin and Eleonor Van Dijk of HTC-Highroad broke clear and were joined by Poland’s Malgorzata Jaskinska of the S.C. Michela Fanini-Rox team. They gained 50 with 18km to go but where pulled back with ten kilometres to go, as the teams flexed their muscles and prepared for the finish.

The Giro Donne heads east to the Abruzzo region for Saturday’s hilly 91km second stage around Pescocostanzo.